Brewer's: Buphagos

Pausanias (viii. 24) tells us that the son of Japhet was called Buphagos (glutton), as Hercules was called Adephagus, because on one occasion he ate a whole ox (Athenæos x.). The French call the English “Beefeaters,” because they are eaters of large joints of meat, and not of delicate, well-dressed viands. Neither of these has any relation to our Yeomen of the Guards. (See Beefeaters, page 115.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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